Hon Hai

iPads and iPhones are "very difficult to make" says Foxconn

But the world's largest electronics manufacturer is not complaining

Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou, whose Foxconn subsidiary does the final assembly on the lion's share of Apple's (AAPL) product line, addressed the growing disparity Wednesday between his profit margins and his client's.

Why did Apple's net income grow 70% in its last fiscal year while Hon Hai's rose less than 2%?

Because, he told investors at a shareholders meeting, Apple's products are "very MORE

Foxconn closes its polishing plants; effect on iPad unclear

The explosion that killed three in Chengdu on Friday has been traced to a dust-collecting duct

There were several developments over the weekend following the explosion that killed three and injured 15 in a factory in southwest China that builds iPads for Apple (AAPL). (See Inside the Apple iPad factory.)

The third death was confirmed. Six of the injured have been sent home. The rest are still hospitalized.
The blast was traced to MORE

The day Apple landed in Gauna

Why did one of the world's fastest growing tech companies fall twice as fast as the market?

Boy. You leave town for one day and -- if you'll forgive an expression Elmore Leonard warns writers never to use -- all hell breaks loose.

Of course, with Japan's nuclear plants burning and the Dow dropping 242 points and change, you would expect Apple (AAPL) to take a hit. So some of its $15.42 MORE

Report of iPad 2 delay retracted

According to the Wall Street Journal, an unveiling is scheduled for March 2

[UPDATE: Reuters, citing an unnamed source "familiar with the matter," has retracted its report of an iPad 2 delay. The Loop's Jim Dalrymple, citing no sources, has declared both delay reports "not true." And All Things Digital's Kara Swisher has announced that Apple will hold an iPad 2 event on March 2. No source for that one either. MORE

Foxconn stages anti-suicide rallies

Also announces plans to increase its workforce in China to 1 million employees

Thousands of workers at Foxconn's giant Shenzhen industrial park turned out Wednesday for what the company billed as a "Treasure Your Life, Love Your Family, Care for Each Other to Build a Wonderful Future" motivational event, but which the Western press quickly characterized as an anti-suicide rally.

Foxconn, a publicly traded subsidiary of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, MORE

Apple investigating Foxconn suicides

A flurry of public relations activity in China after the ninth fatal fall this year

[UPDATE: A tenth Hon Hai employee -- a 23-year-old man -- jumped to his death from the seventh floor of a workers dormitory only hours after Hon Hai executives took journalists on an unprecedented tour of one of their plants and promised to outfit the dorms with safety nets.]

Terry Gou, the Taiwanese tycoon who founded Hon MORE

Reporter roughed up by Apple supplier

Kicked and dragged for taking photos of a Foxconn plant from a public road in China

Reuters' report Wednesday about the lengths to which Apple (AAPL) and its suppliers will go to guard Steve Jobs' secrets has everything: metal detectors, fingerprint scanners, product head-fakes, lawsuits, multimillion-dollar fines, a suicide, and employees afraid to breathe a word about what they do, even to their wives.

But the highpoint of the piece is a MORE

Apple tablet rumor round-up

Days before its expected unveiling, details of dubious provenance are pouring in

With Apple (AAPL) set to reveal its "latest creation" Wednesday, new rumors surface almost hourly. We'll try to stay on top of them. [UPDATED Tuesday. See below.]

The rendering at right created by Flickr user Fotoboer.nl last August is "strikingly close" to the real thing, people "familiar with the device" tell AppleInsider's Kasper Jade.
Apple is building two versions, one that MORE

Apple execs reportedly flying to China

Either there's a last-minute hitch that requires high-level intervention, or preparations to sell iPhones in China have entered their final stages.

"Senior officials from Apple Inc are to visit China this week, and they haven't arrived in Beijing yet," an unnamed "informed source" told the website Sina.com Monday night.

"Their visit aims to visit (sic) senior officials of China Unicom and discuss with them how iPhone should enter Chinese market," the source MORE